The Two-Way

8:31 am

Sat May 18, 2013

Russian Official Names CIA Station Chief In Moscow

In Moscow's Red Square, people still line up to visit Lenin's tomb. Though the Cold War is over, Russia and the U.S. keep watchful eyes on each other. Tuesday, Russian officials claimed to have uncovered a CIA spy.

Sergei Ilnitsky EPA /Landov

Breaching protocol, a Russian official let a name slip during an interview with Interfax, the state news agency.

The interview was with a representative of the FSB, the Russian security agency, and the name he made public was of the person Russia believes is the CIA station chief in Moscow.

"The US embassy declined to comment . Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general turned Kremlin critic now living in the US, said: 'This is a deliberate attempt to make the situation worse than it is. It's an invitation to the U.S. to do the same and they probably will – and no one will gain.' ...

"[The FSB agent's] comments were widely published in Russian media and on state-run television, including the Kremlin's English-language channel, Russia Today.

"'Basically, the FSB got sick of American spies and demonstratively and publicly slapped one of them,' wrote the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. 'Like a cockroach who thought he was master of the crumbs in the kitchen.'"

Of course, all of this comes after Russia arrested Ryan Fogle, a diplomat stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow whom the Russians say is a CIA operative.

According to Russia Today, which reprinted the interview, the FSB agent said Fogle wasn't the first American spy caught trying to recruit Russian agents. The FSB agent told the news agency that last year, another embassy secretary was expelled from Russia for recruiting attempts. That case wasn't made public, the agent said, but the U.S. was warned.

"We hoped our American colleagues would hear us, given that we also presented to them precise information about CIA officers making recruitment attempts in Moscow and who exactly was doing that," the FSB agent said.

The BBC reports that the U.S. has not commented on the potential outing of the CIA chief in Moscow and it remains unclear whether "the same person remains in the post."